Quick demo of the HTC 8X with audio amplifier

As you may have noticed, the new HTC 8X for Windows Phone 8 features a nice little hardware amplifier (2.55v) to boost audio output.

We got to sample it today in New York and you’ll see as I try to narrate over the audio, I simply cannot compete. While it’s hard to get the “real feel” via video, from our limited experience we can say it does indeed make a difference. Audio is noticeably louder and just as sharp without distortion. Running a line-out to some speakers or other media device should ensure some pumping tunes, perfect for the media-savvy consumer out there.

While boosted audio is not everyone’s selling point for a new phone, we can certainly see many folks considering this the icing on the cake for the stellar looking 8X.

Agreed! Coming from an L800, the L820 is a major let down and damned ugly. The L920 just looks too big, and I'm done with shiny phones. I love the matte polycarbonate look and the 8x is impressing me more and more. I'm going to miss Nokia Music though. Great app.

Hard to tell with the guy and the phone stepping all over each other. He should have set up what he wanted to say first then allow us to heard the phone without him talking all over it.
I do have to say though that the phone was cleaner than the mic he was using. :)

I Hear That.. Where's the logic on the high end phone not having more storage than current phones and then not even being expandable, SMH... I use cloud but my T-II is maxed and I always have to worry about it. I like a lot about the 8x and the audio quality is almost as important as the camera but the limited storage is STUPID and is a deal breaker.

Right here! Im more of a music and movie buff! So, this will probably do it for me! I love Nokia, but the 920 seems too big and heavy. Love the new Pureview tech as well, but im not much of a camera guy. As long as the 8x has a decent camera, I will be o.k.

This device is absolutely phenominal....totally blows away the 820, which was THE device I was looking to get, expandable storage would be nice but I can handle 16 without compromises and gorilla glass is a must for me....hello HTC!!! You have amazed me with the exact size I love, and some serious sound im craving....8x rules!!!

Ok, EE here...what is the 2.55V supposed to refer to? 2.55V line out? 2.55V @ some current to drive a high end set of headphones? Or is the "2.55V" referring to the built-in speaker somehow (I'm betting no, but it probably has a decent speaker anyway)? It can't be all of the above...

Beats audio is about the DSP in the device, and the amplifier is for the speaker on board, not the headphone jack. And the REAL audiophile wouldn't stoop to a phone and MP3 audio anyway, trust me on this, I've worked with many. :-)

But they will choose the phone with the best audio and in this case it more likely is the 8X and 8S, trust me on that. I'm probably going to stick with HTC if Nokia doesn't come close to HTC's Beats audio.

Well Nokia has a partnership with Monster Inc. and beats audio was one of their brands. Basically all the new nokia purity headsets are almost the same as the beats headsets. The only difference are the looks.
So that said i think it wouldn't be impossible for nokia to include something like what the 8X has in their lumias. So maybe it could happen in the near future.

I think Beats by Dre is going away from the Monster company or already has. HTC has 51% of the shares of Beats and made Dre rich with this investment. While monster makes great hardware, the Beats proprietary audio processing is unique and will probably only be on HTC handsets.

This may sound like a stupid question, but what the hell.... how does this work with a bluetooth headset? Will it lose quality over bluetooth? Will you lose the bass boost? In other words, does using a bluetooth headset make the amplifier useless, or do you get the same quality via bluetooth that you would get from a headset plugged into the jack?

Thanks, people! That's what I figured, but if anyone would know for sure, it was some of you! Still leaning towards the 8X now that all are supposed to be going to Verizon, but it's going to come down to pricing and what kind of deal I can get. Thanks again!

I'm really interested on Nokia's next moved. It needs to make the 920 available to all carries or get trump by the 8x. Sure Nokia has the upper hand when it comes to specs and app exclusives and it goes above and beyond to keep Nokia users happy. But they need to reel them in first and that's not going to happened if one carrier has it all. HTC gave us what we wanted, a Slick Phone that meets our needs and most importantly availability and price!! I have Tmo right now and im not planning on switching carries so 8x as of now is #1 on my list

I do listen to a lot of podcasts while doing around the house things. This would be perfect because you could hear over the noise you make which has been a limitation for every other phone I have had. Great job HTC!

This
You pretty much described my use case for my first gen Focus. Listening to podcasts while I'm cooking, cleaning, playing video games, and in the car (have an older system without an audio in jack). So having a phone that is loud without distortion is important for me. I also use the headphones while I'm at work quite often too.
I hate that the 8X is making me reconsider my decision to get the L920. I just don't want to regret giving up Nokia's support and apps. Argh! Good problems to have though :)

I think the 8X is a nice alternative to the 920 if your carrier does not have the latter. But the 8S cannot be an alternative to the 820 since it does not have FFC. With Skype said to be integrated in WP8 and in this day and age, why did they skimp on FFC on the 8S?! They should call this the 8V not the 8S!

Does it have any bass to it ? Even the HTC Surround sounded like I was listening to a radio from a tin can (tho better than other phones at that time). Having more juice to power internal speakers is cool but, if it sounds like crap, what's the point ?

Looks like some of you guys are buying into the Beats marketing scam. Audio is about the headphone jack, not some little shitty speaker that plays louder than others.
I bet this uses the same snapdragon S4 combined audio like all the other S4 devices, and the "beats setting" will just be an equalizer preset for boosted lows and highs instead of linear response (which is what you would want, because you want the headphone to make the difference).